Guernsey hotel offers rooms for construction workers

The Peninsula Hotel has said it has rooms available for construction workers until April

Unused hotel rooms in Guernsey are being used to house migrant workers for the construction industry.

The Peninsula Hotel has offered more than 80 rooms while the it has low occupancy rates in winter.

The island's current housing crisis has led to difficulties bringing staff to the island according to the chairman of the Construction Forum John Bampkin.

He believes the quality of multi-occupancy houses "leave a lot to be desired".

Mr Bampkin who runs the construction supply business Norman Piette said the industry has been "busy" in recent months and "it's been very challenging".

"Short term we will have to bring people in the island, but if local contracts win the contracts those taxes will need to be paid locally which is good news."

Policy and Resources property lead Deputy David Mahoney said the Peninsula Hotel came forward and said it had some rooms available until April.

"We will see if that is taken up by the construction forum and obviously the people within that and obviously we would welcome other hotel groups to come forward."

Charlie Walker from the Little Big Group, which runs the Peninsula Hotel, said following discussions with the States they "stumbled" on a way for construction and hospitality to "help each other out".

"Fingers crossed we can fill some of our empty bedrooms which have been dormant for a year or so and in return construction can benefit at the same time."

'Long-term problem'

Director of JW Rihoys Jeremy Rihoy said there was a "long-term problem" which the hotel room offer does not fix.

"It's extremely tough because the industry has always relied on importing a certain amount of labour from the UK, Portugal and Latvia but all those sources have dried up as they're all busy."

The construction industry has the "same problem everyone else has got" in "there is not enough young people" for the private commercial sector in Guernsey.

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